Still Life Painting – The Online Course
Participants297
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Alessandro Di Gioia
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Alison Ramsden
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Alvin Ng
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Amalia Digan
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Amy Turilli
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Andrej Nitsche
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Andrew Koniuszko
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Andrew Covington
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Anna Kim
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Anneke van Waard
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Antonio Alvarez
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Rayford Hill
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tracey Butler
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Anne TONNA
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Randel Edmonson
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Basilio Crespo García-Baquero
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Rebecca Shieh
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Elizabeth Plotnick
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William Thoms
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William McNamara
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Barbara Longaphie
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Betty Kourasis
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Pascal Bonvin
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Bradley M King
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Lucas Brischetto
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Barbara Moline
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Bruce Schreiber
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Belinda Bryan
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Benjamin OHara
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Carolyn Quevy
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Nishith Pandya
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chantal graveline
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charles caplis
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Chelsea Nichols
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Chris Chevrie
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Malone Samuels
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Cindy Crichton-Kelly
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Claudia Frick-Boehi
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Jake Rocheleau
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Olalekan Oyeleye
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Carol Simpson
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Dale Harrison
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Dan Carpenter
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Daniel Morris
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Daniel Tucker
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David Ladouceur
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David Jamieson
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Dawn Butler
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Dawn England-Harless
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Diane Song
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Denise Easmon-Dura
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David Morris
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Diane Graydon
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Ryan Brooker
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Dominic Rezentes
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Donna Kleyn
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Dorothy Magratten
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Reginald Sapp
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Erik Barrera
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Edinei Arakaki Guskuma
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joseph eidel
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Eileen Cole
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Pierre Forest
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Eli Blee-Goldman
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Johanna Hedge
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Elisabeth Casler
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Ellen Bazzoli
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ELLIOTT OWENS
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Eduardo Loyd
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rose darosa
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Julius Finley
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Fernando Palomo
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Francisco Garcia
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Michael Fry
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Gabriel Maldonado
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Gail Ann Camillo
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Gerardo Acevedo
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Gil Bueno
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Georgann Bourgeois
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Christina Morrissey
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Gerald Key
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Sarah Woodard
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Greg Melloy
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Gregor Schmidt
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Harold Nathan Wollstein
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Helen Harrison
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Isabelle Chouinard
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Candace E Randell
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Jose Roncero
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Barbara and Elizabeth Corish
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Irma Wirawan
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Jose Barragan
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John Clarke
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John Ebel
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Jamie Bowman
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Jan McLean
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jawaad ogletree
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James Gill
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Jessie Cook
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Jemima Dano
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Jennifer Brodie
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Jenni Gingerich
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Jeremy Schembri
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Jaime Etchepare
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james bright
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Jim Fitzgerald
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Ji-hoon Kim
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Jackson Pruitt
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Jocelyn Baines
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Joe Ward
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John Huffman
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Jordan Angell
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Jose Alvarenga
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JOSE BORGES
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John Goodrum
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Jean-Pierre Lavielle
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jeffrey resnick
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Judith Sweetwood
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Jules Forth
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khalid hifzi
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Kamil Kaźmierski
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Karen West
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Kas Dane
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Kate Williams
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Kay Bergemann
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Karen Becker
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Kevin Moore
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Kellie Heywood
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Ken Hunt
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KERRY HAN
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Kevin Layshock
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michael king
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Kirby Krieger
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Katherine Mauney
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Ken Mallett
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Frank Monte
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Kerstin Glick
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Wayne Peterson
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yuet shing lam
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Laurel Hibma
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Liliana Bogao Phinney
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Lea Fairbanks
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Leonie Flynn
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Kaixiang Li
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Lori Allison Flick
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Lois Simon
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Lori Ippolito
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lori taxer lewis
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Lynn Steinberg
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Annette Mackintosh
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Melinda Marques
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Mark Hauge
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Mandy Root-Thompson
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Marcel van Rooijen
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Marcela Carbo
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Marci Schwartz
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Margo Casados
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Mariana Cavelier
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Marie-lyne Morant
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Mario Rinaudo
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Martina Pook
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Crisalida Thomassie
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Mary Schafer
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Mateusz Bargiel
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mathew nudelman
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Peter Youssef
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Mike Jones
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james quist
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Melinda Kenneway
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Moises Menendez
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Mia Herbosa
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michael
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Michele Duhrssen
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Michelle Hosking
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Michelle Turnbull
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Michelle DeFazio
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Migdalia Galarza
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Kendra Shea
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Daniel Landrie
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Missy Dewing
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Mitch Birnbaum
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Kathleen Kovacs
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Mathilde Le Brun
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May-Britt Mykietiak
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Moises Bonilla
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Ms Goode
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Martin Lewis-Enright
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Mark Romanowitz
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Martha Zambrano
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Linda Nguyen
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Marcus Simmuteit
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Neville Dembo
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Nicole Gillman
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Continuing Ed
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Helle Nygaard
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Ciaran O'Connor
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Omar Radwan
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Paul Ostrander
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Monica Loder-Scheer
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Pablo Avila
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Mark Burgess
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Zlatan Beogradlija
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patrick elliott
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Patricia Therasse
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Paula Birdsong
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Paula Sawadsky
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Paul Farquharson
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Peggy Spiros
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Scott Young
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Peter Hogan
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Peter Lount
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Peter Clothier
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Peter Godfrey
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Patrick Holloway
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Philip Prinz
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Hiroshi Tawara
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Eric Pierse
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patricia bueter
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Priscilla Mingus
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Mai Hoa Mai Guennou
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Rahul Parnaik
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Raphael Abreu
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Ron Smith
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Wayne Knowles
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Lisa Regalla
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Renata Maraj
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Rene De Groot
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Renya Feeney
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Richard
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Ka Wai To
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Robert Wilson
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Robin Barnhart
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Rodney Ifill
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Donna Shoberg
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Rory DuBose
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Randy Orebaugh
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Rosalind Young
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Rovenzo Trotta
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betina farkas
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Russell Heiman
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Sally Rackets
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Sarah Orrin
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Sarah Kaiser-Amaral
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Martin Schoenthaler
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Steven Christy
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susan vaughan
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Sharon Harvey
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Sheldon Lazarow
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Sherese Mesko
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Paul Christiansen
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Sandra Shuck
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Sigrid Knemeyer
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Brigitte D'avanzo
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Gilles Borg
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James Smith
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Daniel Solyom
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Sophie DELESQUE
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Sree Nair
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Stefano Orio
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Stephanie Wilkey
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Stephanie Petrick
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Steve Shaw
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Sally Student
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Neil DIxon
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Susan Leite
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Gabriel Swift
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Susan Wrzesinski
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Syamsul Arief
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T M
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TS Talbott
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Diana Caldwell
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Troy C
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Todd Raasch
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Ken LaRue
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Jimmy Fucktard
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TATSUYA MORITA
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Thomas Sensabaugh
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Trevor Winfield
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juliem McFarling
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Mat Watts
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Tuomas Tuimala
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Valerie Hunter
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Ho Chun V Leung
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Vinesh Shankar
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Broyda Vitali
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Vinko Lisnic
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Vivian Zapata
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Werner Boeglin
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Wayne Collins
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Wendy Lunardi
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Frank Fotta
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Chritine Young
4.1 – Introduction to Drawing for Painting
In This Lesson:
Drawing is a big topic, which is why we have several courses at Vitruvian dedicated to drawing alone. But drawing for painting is a unique application of our drawing process and is worth discussing in some detail.
Key Concepts
If We’re Going to Make a Painting, Why Draw With Pencil?
Making a painting is a complicated task. In the end, we’ll get better results if we take that complexity and break it down into a series of more manageable steps. In this way, we can arrive at a sophisticated end result without it ever feeling overwhelming or out of control.
Drawing is part of painting. Problems of composition, shape, proportion, and perspective arise when making artwork in any medium. How we choose to address those things is a matter of personal preference – but they do have to be addressed.
Since we’re making a painting in this course, it would be reasonable to assume that we should just draw with paint. Many artists do just that, executing some sort of underpainting directly on the empty canvas with a dark, fluid wash of color. A painting is a painting, after all, so why not execute it with paint from start to finish? This is a perfectly valid way to work, and if you’d prefer to do that here, I encourage you to give it a try.
But there’s a counter-argument to be made: drawing is difficult all on its own and might be more easily accomplished with materials made specifically for the task. Drawing well with brushes can be difficult – they can feel clumsy and unwieldy, particularly for students who are still learning to draw and are used to using pencils. So why not be clear about what we’re trying to do at this stage? We’re not actually painting yet, we’re drawing. Let’s use the best tools available for that purpose and draw the image with pencil and paper, then transfer that image to the panel later. This is the approach I’ve opted for in this course.
On Drawing for Painting
If you’ve taken any of our drawing courses before, you’re already familiar with our process for drawing at the studio. What we’ll be doing here is quite similar, but we’ll only be working in the preliminary, linear stages – the block-in and line-in.
This particular drawing only exists for one purpose: to be transferred to the panel. Transfers are linear because the transfer process is binary – either something is transferred, or it isn’t. There’s no easy way to make some parts of a transfer lighter or darker, and so we can’t really include much value work in the process. That’s why any drawing made for transfer is usually just a line drawing – why spend time on value development in the drawing that can’t be passed on to the panel?
This doesn’t mean, however, that there’s no utility in doing some tonal work in the drawing. Think of the drawing as a kind of rehearsal for the painting, and doing a kind of “practice run” at form description with some elementary hatching on the page is entirely reasonable. It’s not necessary, but I do this in the demonstration, and you’re welcome to follow along. Just remember, that none of the tonal work you do on the drawing will carry over to the panel.
Click here to download Still Life Painting Module 4 PDF
Responses
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Hi David
Happy New Year 🙂
Could you tell me what size drawing paper you used – i.e. g/m2. That will be helpful to know in order to choose the right thickness of paper for transferring the image to the paint surface.
Hi Helle,
In the course, I’m transferring using a printed copy of my drawing on no-frills copy paper (I don’t have a weight available for that paper, but I can tell you it’s the cheap stuff, so it’s pretty lightweight). My standard white drawing paper is Strathmore 400 series, 80lb weight (or 130g/m2). I’ve used it to transfer as well, and it works fine – just check your progress frequently as you go. Thicker paper tends to hold onto the transfer medium better, resulting in potentially less of it getting transferred to the panel.
Thank you 🙂
Hi David, I am delighted to have joined the still life course. Your thorough and clear approach is such a pleasure. Concerning the drawing process – is it possible to make the pencil drawing directly on the painting surface instead of doing a transfer? Is there any particular reason why you are not doing it in that way?
Hi Helle,
I’m glad you’re enjoying the course so far!
The main argument for transferring your drawing is that you should anticipate needing to make corrections and revisions as you work. If you’re drawing directly on the panel, it’s a little harder to erase, so depending on how many mistakes you make, you could end up with a lot of graphite or charcoal on the painting ground. Then, when you do your underpainting , all that dark powder will mix with the fluid paint application and could muddy your colors noticeably.
What I like about transferring instead is that you can make as many mistakes as you need to on the paper, but only the corrected line work will get transferred over to the panel. Since the transfer medium is oil paint, there will be no risk of dark drawing material corrupting your colors.
Hope that makes sense!
Thank you 🙂 And yes, it makes good sense.